Alzheimer's patient learns to stay sharp, with a smile

Jane Sparks keeps a social calendar commensurate with her vivacious personality.

She fills her time with tap dance class, weekends with her great-grandchildren and visits to the beauty parlor. But three times a week, Sparks, 87, goes somewhere none of her friends knows about.

At the Alzheimer's Family Services Center in Huntington Beach, she's working to preserve her memory and adjust to living with the early stages of the brain disease.

"I don't feel like I'm different from anybody," Sparks said. "I don't feel like I'm affected. This reminds me that I guess I've got it or I wouldn't be here. I do sometimes wonder why I'm here, but I've been diagnosed, so evidently I have it. It seems like it's negative and I don't like negative."

Sparks is so positive and upbeat that she will be honored next month at the nonprofit's organization's fundraising gala.

"She's so helpful," said her social worker Corinne Enos. "She'll push wheelchairs. She'll talk to anyone, even if they're not that talkative. She's pretty nurturing to the other participants."

In the beginning, attending the center's day program wasn't easy, particularly when Sparks saw people in the later stages of illness.

"When she first started, she used to refer to the place as Depression Alley," Enos said. "It took some time for her to adjust. She's come to a place of acceptance."

Then Enos goes on.

"I don't know that you can really fully accept this disease."

FOND MEMORIES

Sparks was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in 2008 after her family began noticing short-term memory problems the year before. Sparks lives at home with help from a caregiver. She also takes medication to lessen symptoms.

Since 2011, Sparks has attended the center, where she pays $95 a day for services that include memory work on the computer, health monitoring, and strength and mobility exercises.

The halls are decorated with cheerful images from the era where memories surface easily – Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin and classic cars. During a music session, participants sing along to old standards, some recalling every word.

"It doesn't mean they have lost everything," said Susan Caumiant, interim executive director. "They can still have a joyful life."

Sparks was born in Detroit and moved to Southern California as a young girl. She tells stories from the past with sharp detail and wit.

She has been a vegetarian most of her life, a subconscious decision after working in her family's poultry market. As a child, she plucked feathers and rang up customers at the cash register, perched on a stool.

She met her future husband, Gerald, at an Elks Club dance, where every Friday she refused his request to drive her home. One night, she finally gave in but had to wait because he had another date.

"He had to rush her home and rush back to get me," Sparks said. "That started it."

She married him at 17, a week before he left for World War II. He was gone three years.

"We wrote every day to one another," she said. "I've still got every letter."

After his return, they moved to Newport Beach. They raised three sons, and Sparks kept the books for the family construction business. She also earned a pilot's license and worked in interior design.

Sparks was married 62 years before her husband died in 2004.

FEAR OF STIGMA

When the subject turns to memory, Sparks falters a bit.

"I don't notice it as much, I think, as the family does," Sparks said. "I seem to get along fine. It doesn't seem to make that much difference in my life."

When asked why she attends the program, she said: "All of a sudden I went to the doctor and I'm coming here. The doctor must have done some testing."

As for how she remembers what she needs to: "I take a lot of notes," Sparks said. "I'm not forgetting everything. I know where I'm supposed to go. Like any other illness, you work around it. It's just not that much of a problem."

"Don't you consider Alzheimer's something where your brain is out of function?" she asked.

Sparks' oldest son, Tom Sparks, says he has told her that her friends have formed their opinions of her and won't think any less of her.

"The first coping skill that pretty much everyone with dementia learns is how to hide it so you can continue to maintain your social relationships," he said. "My mother is very skilled socially. She is very active in her yacht club. Not only does she do the tap dancing, but she's probably for the last 50 years done hula dancing with some friends."

Her sense of humor is also never far away.

When a visitor to the center mentioned losing track of time, Sparks joked: "Don't tell anyone. You might end up here. It doesn't take much."

The hardest adjustment for Sparks has been the loss of her driver's license.

"I still feel that I'm a good driver," she said. "That's frustrating, not being able to jump in the car and go somewhere."

But through it all, Sparks is quick to flash a lipstick-covered smile.

"My philosophy is why be a downer? That's depressing," she said. "I try to find the up in everything I can. You have a choice in life and you have a choice in how you think. My kids are good to me. I've had a good life. I think I've been very fortunate and still am."

Information: The Alzheimer's Family Services Center is licensed to provide adult day health care for up to 100 people. It is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Hoag Neurosciences Institute. Jane Sparks will be honored at a fundraiser May 11 at 6 p.m. at the Waterfront Beach Hotel in Huntington Beach. Tickets cost $150. Information: 714-593-1848.